Capitol Briefs 10-15

Capitol Briefs

Drunk driving crackdown over holidays

Law enforcement agencies across the state will begin stepping up enforcement to crack down on drunken drivers over the holiday season.

Dollars from the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau will help put more police officers on Iowa's roadways between Wednesday and Jan. 3.

Last year, Iowa saw 81 people die as a result of drunken driving and more than 1,500 Iowans suffered injuries in drunken driving crashes.

“Make no mistake. If you're caught driving impaired, you will be arrested. No exceptions. No excuses,” said Larry Sauer, director of the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau.

Loud TV commercials targeted

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, expressed support for a measure targeting loud television ads that cleared the U.S. House on a voice vote Tuesday.

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act, seeks to prevent advertisers from adjusting the volumes on their ads to be disproportionately louder than television programming.

“This legislation will finally provide some relief from blaring television ads, which can disproportionately affect or cause hearing damage for Iowa's seniors, small children and those who use hearing aids,” Braley said in a statement.

Culver to sign efficiency measures

Gov. Chet Culver is planning to sign an executive order Wednesday enacting several measures meant to save money and make state government more efficient.

Culver's executive order will enact 40 recommendations contained in a report by a private consulting firm to save the state more than $128 million in the first year and more than $713 million over five years.

Some of the changes include things such as reducing the state vehicle fleet, reducing human resources staff and retrofitting state buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Other recommendations in the report would take legislative action before they could be enacted, and some recommendations are still under review.

H1N1 vaccine recall

State public health officials insist that recalled H1N1 vaccinations for children that made their way to Iowa are safe and that those who received them do not need to be revaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recalled four lots of the vaccination after manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur found that the strength of the vaccine was below predetermined levels. Iowa was allocated 28,600 doses of the affected vaccine intended for children, most of which officials said have been administered.

Don Callaghan, immunization and tuberculosis bureau chief for the Iowa Department of Public Health, called the vaccine “completely safe.”

Officials said those who have received the vaccine have had no significant reduction in the immune response.

“For that reason, there is no need to re-vaccinate anyone who received one or both doses of the affected vaccine,” Callaghan said in a statement.